iPhone Smart 3g + LTE

I saw this tweak pop up in Cydia, and am curious how reliable this type of tweak is. The gist is that when your phone is on wifi, it automatically turns off the 3g and LTE data antenna to keep it from searching to connect, thereby extending battery life. My concerns are about whether tweaks like these interfere with phone calls, and how reliably the data toggles turn themselves back on.

Anyone have experience with this app in particular, or others with similar features?

I use akAuto3G which is similar. AkAuto3G automatically turns off 3G and turns on Edge whenever you're connected to wifi or when your phone is locked. It works as advertised and the dev is extremely responsive. I pointed out 2 things to him and he's implementing both. As of right now, every time you lock your device, even if its only for a quick second so you can do something else with your hands, and then immediately go back to using the phone, as soon as you unlock, the phone will turn off edge and turn on 3G. This can be annoying when you only locked the phone for literally a few seconds and now you have to wait for the radios to change. So the dev is implementing a time delay feature to avoid this problem. That's a very welcomed addition. It's in the next update too which should be live soon. The other quirk I learned was occasional dropped calls. Before i purchased the tweak I emailed the dev and asked about dropped calls when going from connected to wifi at home to being outside and no longer connected. I asked because obviously once you're not on wifi but youre using the phone, it will turn off edge and turn on 3G. It won't go back to edge until you lock your device. He told me that sometimes the call will be dropped and other times its fine. Regardless, he is working on a permanent fix to force the tweak to wait until the phone call is officially over before switching the radios. That was my biggest concern but because he has responded to all of my emails and was honest with me, I purchased the tweak. Luckily I haven't experienced any dropped calls yet and hopefully he'll figure out a way to never let that happen.

Either way, once he adds these two updates ill be extremely happy with my purchase. Right now I'm already happy. I've been having some of my best battery life with my 4S on 6.1.2. My battery is significantly better now than what it was when I was on 5.1.1, 6.1, and 6.1.1. For me, 6.1.2 blows those firmwares out of the water in terms of battery drainage and I'm hoping this tweak helps squeeze out a little more juice! So far it's been great. I'll keep you posted if you want.

Edit: I am with AT&T and I live in a city that has terrific 3G and Edge networks. No matter which radio I'm on, I always have max reception. Although now that I'm using this tweak, I am never on Edge when I'm actually using my phone. Before when I'd rely solely on NCSettings to toggle my 3G radio on and off, sometimes if forget to turn 3G back on when I'm quickly checking something on safari or an email. Now whenever I unlock my phone, this tweak automatically turns on my 3G and I get the speed boost and then once I'm done and I lock my device, it automatically enables edge to save battery! And I still get all my notifications because I keep data turned on at all times. Needless to say, as a person who still turns on edge to squeeze out a little bit more battery life, I'm happy I bought this tweak. (I decided to type all this because I have found little information on this tweak's actual real world usage. Now at least I put a little bit of information out there for anyone who is curious.)

I use akAuto3G which is similar. AkAuto3G automatically turns off 3G and turns on Edge whenever you're connected to wifi or when your phone is locked. It works as advertised and the dev is extremely responsive. I pointed out 2 things to him and he's implementing both. As of right now, every time you lock your device, even if its only for a quick second so you can do something else with your hands, and then immediately go back to using the phone, as soon as you unlock, the phone will turn off edge and turn on 3G. This can be annoying when you only locked the phone for literally a few seconds and now you have to wait for the radios to change. So the dev is implementing a time delay feature to avoid this problem. That's a very welcomed addition. It's in the next update too which should be live soon. The other quirk I learned was occasional dropped calls. Before i purchased the tweak I emailed the dev and asked about dropped calls when going from connected to wifi at home to being outside and no longer connected. I asked because obviously once you're not on wifi but youre using the phone, it will turn off edge and turn on 3G. It won't go back to edge until you lock your device. He told me that sometimes the call will be dropped and other times its fine. Regardless, he is working on a permanent fix to force the tweak to wait until the phone call is officially over before switching the radios. That was my biggest concern but because he has responded to all of my emails and was honest with me, I purchased the tweak. Luckily I haven't experienced any dropped calls yet and hopefully he'll figure out a way to never let that happen.

Either way, once he adds these two updates ill be extremely happy with my purchase. Right now I'm already happy. I've been having some of my best battery life with my 4S on 6.1.2. My battery is significantly better now than what it was when I was on 5.1.1, 6.1, and 6.1.1. For me, 6.1.2 blows those firmwares out of the water in terms of battery drainage and I'm hoping this tweak helps squeeze out a little more juice! So far it's been great. I'll keep you posted if you want.

Edit: I am with AT&T and I live in a city that has terrific 3G and Edge networks. No matter which radio I'm on, I always have max reception. Although now that I'm using this tweak, I am never on Edge when I'm actually using my phone. Before when I'd rely solely on NCSettings to toggle my 3G radio on and off, sometimes if forget to turn 3G back on when I'm quickly checking something on safari or an email. Now whenever I unlock my phone, this tweak automatically turns on my 3G and I get the speed boost and then once I'm done and I lock my device, it automatically enables edge to save battery! And I still get all my notifications because I keep data turned on at all times. Needless to say, as a person who still turns on edge to squeeze out a little bit more battery life, I'm happy I bought this tweak. (I decided to type all this because I have found little information on this tweak's actual real world usage. Now at least I put a little bit of information out there for anyone who is curious.)

Click to expand...

Well I appreciate the in depth review of your experience, as you noted, there aren't many out there. I have a 5, so I'm looking for a tweak that does this for LTE as well, so if I see this pop up as a feature on akAuto I'll have to give it a try

I'm curious about these kinds of tweaks. But here's my issue. I have an app called gMusic that streams my music library from Google Player over 3G (and LTE when Sprint finally turns it on here). The app works from the lockscreen just like the normal music controls and I plug it in to my car stereo when I'm out driving.

If I have one of these tweaks installed and I lock my screen and the radios drop to Edge, how can I stream my music using gMusic?

BatteryDoctorPro+ has this feature where the phone drops to 2G on lock, but I found out I couldn't stream my music. Which is why I am now asking this question.

With these tweaks are there any provisions for something like this? Can you make an exception? Or is it an all or nothing kind of thing?

I tried this tweak but I think it messed up my settings too bad. All of the sudden I couldn't connect to my cell service at all. Not even for voice. I had to uninstall Smart 3g and reset all my settings to get it working again.

I'm curious about these kinds of tweaks. But here's my issue. I have an app called gMusic that streams my music library from Google Player over 3G (and LTE when Sprint finally turns it on here). The app works from the lockscreen just like the normal music controls and I plug it in to my car stereo when I'm out driving.

If I have one of these tweaks installed and I lock my screen and the radios drop to Edge, how can I stream my music using gMusic?

BatteryDoctorPro+ has this feature where the phone drops to 2G on lock, but I found out I couldn't stream my music. Which is why I am now asking this question.

With these tweaks are there any provisions for something like this? Can you make an exception? Or is it an all or nothing kind of thing?

Click to expand...

The antennas only switch off when you're connected to wifi, so if smart 3g + LTE works as advertised this shouldn't be an issue for you.

Phone calls and SMS should will work fine. The only thing affected is data. So that would include things like iMessage and internet. Also picture texts.

Click to expand...

Are you saying that there is no data at all? Because if so, that is false. You get data on edge it's just not as fast as 3G. I still get all my mms, notifications, emails etc. It all works as advertised and saves me battery life. The moment I slide to unlock, the antenna quickly and immediately switches to 3G. Then once I'm done and I lock my phone, it switches back to edge. You still have data throughout. I use akAuto3G and I've been using for a couple days now. My phone works exactly how it did before and my battery is lasting longer. Normally when I leave work I'm down to about 30%. But since installing akAuto3G, I'm usually around 50-55%.

To the poster who asked about exceptions, I can't speak about smart 3G but in this tweaks case, you can not make exceptions. It's all or nothing.

If you'd like, I can stream music via edge and let you know how it performs. Of course you could do the same thing if you have NcSettings installed I believe. I have a 4S not a 5 so I'm not sure how NcSettings works on that device. The problem you'll have if you use akauto3g though, even if you can stream music without any skips and buffering on edge, as soon as you unlock your device it's probably going to temporarily stop while the antennas switch. I'll double check for you though. If enough of the stream is buffered, theoretically it might not stop to buffer since the antenna switch only takes a couple seconds. I'll test it if you'd like me to.

Are you saying that there is no data at all? Because if so, that is false. You get data on edge it's just not as fast as 3G. I still get all my mms, notifications, emails etc. It all works as advertised and saves me battery life. The moment I slide to unlock, the antenna quickly and immediately switches to 3G. Then once I'm done and I lock my phone, it switches back to edge. You still have data throughout. I use akAuto3G and I've been using for a couple days now. My phone works exactly how it did before and my battery is lasting longer. Normally when I leave work I'm down to about 30%. But since installing akAuto3G, I'm usually around 50-55%.

To the poster who asked about exceptions, I can't speak about smart 3G but in this tweaks case, you can not make exceptions. It's all or nothing.

If you'd like, I can stream music via edge and let you know how it performs. Of course you could do the same thing if you have NcSettings installed I believe. I have a 4S not a 5 so I'm not sure how NcSettings works on that device. The problem you'll have if you use akauto3g though, even if you can stream music without any skips and buffering on edge, as soon as you unlock your device it's probably going to temporarily stop while the antennas switch. I'll double check for you though. If enough of the stream is buffered, theoretically it might not stop to buffer since the antenna switch only takes a couple seconds. I'll test it if you'd like me to.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the offer of testing. I'm going to try one of these anyway and see what happens. Streaming on Edge though would be fine I guess if I wasn't on Sprint's network. 3G on Sprint is bad enough. I can barely get through one song without multiple skips anyway. That's one of the reasons why I was wondering about the streaming without 3G. Supposedly Network Vision is going to fix all this but they are taking their sweet time getting to Phoenix.

Ahhhhh, looks like it's Smart 3G+LTE anyway. The decription on akAuto3G say GSM only, CDMA not supported. That leaves me out as I'm on Sprint (CDMA).

P.S. Both NCSettings and SBSettings work just fine on my iPhone 5.
OH SNAP!!! Smart 3G+LTE has an app exception list. You can have any app installed exempted!

Thanks for the offer of testing. I'm going to try one of these anyway and see what happens. Streaming on Edge though would be fine I guess if I wasn't on Sprint's network. 3G on Sprint is bad enough. I can barely get through one song without multiple skips anyway. That's one of the reasons why I was wondering about the streaming without 3G. Supposedly Network Vision is going to fix all this but they are taking their sweet time getting to Phoenix.

Ahhhhh, looks like it's Smart 3G+LTE anyway. The decription on akAuto3G say GSM only, CDMA not supported. That leaves me out as I'm on Sprint (CDMA).

P.S. Both NCSettings and SBSettings work just fine on my iPhone 5.
OH SNAP!!! Smart 3G+LTE has an app exception list. You can have any app installed exempted!

Click to expand...

No problem. You are very welcome. I overlooked the part you said you were on Sprint. My bad. That's great Smart 3G has an exception list! That could definitely come in handy. I didn't think of how useful that could be until you mentioned it. I'm gonna email the developer of akAuto3G to see if he can implement an exception list after he's done updating the potential dropped call bug (which I have yet to experience) and the delayed trigger for turning off 3G. With those 2 updates PLUS an exception list, man ill be a happy customer. That would mean on my morning commute to work I can stream tunein radio and if I don't feel like surfing safari or whatever but instead choose to lock my device, it'll keep my antenna on 3G just to be sure I have a strong connection for streaming. Then when I get to work, close tunein radio and put my phone away, it'll automatically go back to behaving normally, thus disabling 3G and switching to edge to maximize battery.

I just tried streaming tunein radio via edge and it was spotty. If I choose the lower quality it gets a better stream but I'd rather not have to do that. Luckily for me I ride the bus to work because its so much easier than fighting traffic and trying to find parking. Because of this, I am using my phone the entire time while streaming the radio in the background (this means my 3G stays enabled the entire time.) But if I could add TuneIn Radio as an exception, then the tweak would be much more "automated" because if I want to only listen to music and put my phone in my pocket, the tweak would see the radio is playing and keep 3G enabled. I'm gonna email him and see what he says.

Anyways, thanks for chiming in on this topic. You got my wheels spinning! Hopefully the dev can do this! It'll make the tweak so much better.

No problem. You are very welcome. I overlooked the part you said you were on Sprint. My bad. That's great Smart 3G has an exception list! That could definitely come in handy. I didn't think of how useful that could be until you mentioned it. I'm gonna email the developer of akAuto3G to see if he can implement an exception list after he's done updating the potential dropped call bug (which I have yet to experience) and the delayed trigger for turning off 3G. With those 2 updates PLUS an exception list, man ill be a happy customer. That would mean on my morning commute to work I can stream tunein radio and if I don't feel like surfing safari or whatever but instead choose to lock my device, it'll keep my antenna on 3G just to be sure I have a strong connection for streaming. Then when I get to work, close tunein radio and put my phone away, it'll automatically go back to behaving normally, thus disabling 3G and switching to edge to maximize battery.

I just tried streaming tunein radio via edge and it was spotty. If I choose the lower quality it gets a better stream but I'd rather not have to do that. Luckily for me I ride the bus to work because its so much easier than fighting traffic and trying to find parking. Because of this, I am using my phone the entire time while streaming the radio in the background (this means my 3G stays enabled the entire time.) But if I could add TuneIn Radio as an exception, then the tweak would be much more "automated" because if I want to only listen to music and put my phone in my pocket, the tweak would see the radio is playing and keep 3G enabled. I'm gonna email him and see what he says.

Anyways, thanks for chiming in on this topic. You got my wheels spinning! Hopefully the dev can do this! It'll make the tweak so much better.

Click to expand...

I agree (exceptions making the tweak better). Battery life is important, but sometimes you just want to use the phone and are willing to sacrafice a small amount of that. I hope the dev can implement this for you. Sounds like he's pretty responsive though so there should be a good chance of it.

MacRumors attracts a broad audience
of both consumers and professionals interested in
the latest technologies and products. We also boast an active community focused on
purchasing decisions and technical aspects of the iPhone, iPod, iPad, and Mac platforms.